What’s Worse Than Climate Catastrophe? Climate Catastrophe Plus Fascism.

May 26, 2021 2:36 PM

A conversation with Andreas Malm about his new book, 'White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism.'
posted by Ahmad Khani (9 comments total)

I would actually say that a smart European far right probably should be small g green. It could easily be played as protecting the beauty of the country etc, and could aim to suck in single issue green voters as well as to outflank the left in an area of strength.

It won't be though, because it would appear that most of the far right is happy to take financial and ideological tips from oil price dependent Moscow.
posted by jaduncan at 3:10 PM on May 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

Oh boy. Added to my reading list. (The book. Very thought provoking interview)
posted by supermedusa at 3:13 PM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Climate catastrope, plus melted corpses from every thing that ever froze, in the arctic, after death from any infectious state, over thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, including Spanish Flu victims. That is worse than bad politics.
posted by Oyéah at 3:14 PM on May 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

previously in ecofascism news on Metafilter (Malm refers to it in the article as "green nationalism" but obviously different shades on the same spectrum)
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 3:24 PM on May 26, 2021

Eco fascism is a thing, too.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:27 PM on May 26, 2021

Malm's book on violence and the climate crisis is fascinating.
posted by doctornemo at 6:17 PM on May 26, 2021

Moscow is counting on the earth to warm. That will make their huge landmass more pleasant and arable. Sell sell sell oil!
posted by Oyéah at 6:45 PM on May 26, 2021

Thanks for posting this. I'm a little hazy in my head after my first shot of vaccine, so I've saved the article for future re-reading, but I feel it makes a lot of sense.
posted by mumimor at 4:57 AM on May 27, 2021

Yes fascinating interview thanks.

Aside from the obvious culprits mentioned, one country stands out as pretty closely matching his definition of a fascist state -- I'm referring to the country led by Narendra Modi. So while yes clearly historical white supremacist imperialism helped to contribute to the current state of affairs, in modern global politics, fascism in bed with the fossil fuel industry is hardly exclusive to white-led states. Personally I'd opine that the leadership of Xi Jinping is also just about as close to fascism as anything in Europe or 'the West' now.

Biden could perhaps preempt a kind of resurgent Trumpian far right if he managed to go, perhaps not all out but pretty far with something close to the Green New Deal, where you’d have redistribution and a very rapid process of phasing out fossil fuels. But it’s also precisely that kind of politics that will encounter the greatest right-wing resistance. I don’t see how you can overcome the far right as a future threat when it comes to climate without taking these interests on, in a political confrontation.

This seems quite accurate, but we can see, for example in the recent pipe dream scenario proposed by Biden's climate czar John Kerry that emerging tech will neatly wrap up this whole crisis for us, that team Biden has no realistic intention of confronting the political bastions of Big Oil and the rest of the dirty industry.

Even California, ostensibly a national leader among the states on the crisis, is still eager to keep starting new drilling projects.
posted by viborg at 10:47 PM on May 27, 2021